Sonya | Leadership Brand & Style Coach: [00:00:00] Okay. It is the first week of December. Honestly, I cannot, believe that we are here. So you are probably thinking about, Christmas parties, what to buy for gifts, holiday travel logistics, and if you've got school aged children, you're mentally counting down. So it's a few weeks where productivity for you will drop to zero and the happy Christmas period kicks in.
So here is my question for you. When are you planning for you? Not your team's quarter one goals, not your organization or company, strategic priorities for 2026, not your family's holiday schedule, but when are you sitting down and asking, who am I gonna be in 2026? Where am I going? And is my [00:01:00] brand, my style, my leadership presence?
Actually. Set up to support that. And again, I know for myself personally and a lot of the women that I've worked with, that most cases we are not necessarily thinking about that. We are thinking about everything else that is happening. But I know that you already know that the leaders who hit the ground running in quarter one did not start planning in January.
They started in December, if not earlier than that before the kids were off school, before the January rush and before everybody else started scrambling with their new year, new you energy. You know what I'm talking about, right? They took one strategic hour in early December, if not before, and did the work that most [00:02:00] leaders never do.
And today, that's exactly what we're gonna do together. So if you tuned into this episode, you're in for a treat.
Welcome to the Style and Strategy Podcast, where personal brand meets leadership and style. I'm Sonya, a personal brand and style coach who's been exactly where you are juggling career and business success. Personal growth and finding a style that truly fits. After decades in corporate leadership, I've learned that showing up isn't just about what you do, it's about how you align who you are and how the world sees you.
This season, I'm bringing you practical strategies, bold insights, and honest conversations to help you amplify your presence, unlock your next level, and lead with clarity and confidence. Let's dive in.
Sonya | Leadership Brand & Style Coach: So. Most people wait until January 1st to think about [00:03:00] their goals. And you know what happens. January 1st becomes January 15th, then February, and before you know it, quarter one is over and you haven't done the strategic work to align your presence where you are actually going.
Because let's be honest, you plan meticulously for. Everyone else, you've probably already mapped your team's Q1 priorities. You've done that strategic planning for your organization. You've thought about the succession budgets initiatives, but when it comes to your own leadership evolution, your personal brand, your style, the way you're being experienced in the rooms that matter, that gets pushed to when I have some time.
However, that time doesn't come unless you plan for it, right? Because we know that your leadership presence is how your leadership lands, and if you are not [00:04:00] maintaining strategically, it will drift and no one else is gonna come tap you on the shoulder and do it for you. So today I'm gonna walk you through a couple of diagnostic exercises.
And these are the same exercises I use with private clients and those within, any of my really group programs. You'll know exactly where you need to focus in 2026 and give you a little bit of time to act before the year ends whilst having some downtime, of course, as well. So let's get into it. Okay, so the pattern I see over and over is you can map a 12 month roadmap for your business in your sleep, your business, your team, et cetera.
You know exactly what everybody needs to accomplish in that next quarter. But yourself, that is totally different. You tell yourself you'll get to it after this project, after the holidays, after things, calm down. [00:05:00] And one of my clients said it actually perfectly, she realized that she spent hours planning the company offsite, but couldn't remember the last time she thought about her own strategic evolution.
And so here is what that can cost you, right? You enter new spaces looking and feeling like the old you. Your wardrobe really reflects who you were five years ago, and if you listen to last week's podcast, you know I touched on that and you feel like the look that you're putting out there is outdated.
Maybe your LinkedIn bio still describes a role yet you've outgrown, you have evolved. Your role has evolved, but your presence hasn't, and you are operating in an old system like you haven't upgraded it. And it's not that people notice, it's, you feel it, and there isn't nothing [00:06:00] different. We always know what it feels like when there's a fresh coat of paint or a new building or anything like that, right?
There's, there suddenly becomes this subtle misalignment. And so just like you wouldn't run your business or your brand or your organization on outdated tech, you can't lead at your next level with. A presence that's won from yesteryear So planning for yourself and positioning for yourself is not selfish. It is strategic and the time to do it before January before everybody else starts because you start to lose,Q1 to the actual scramble that happens.
So the first exercise I want you to do is what I like to call the brand and style life wheel. And if you listened to an episode back in January, 2025, you might remember me talking about this as the life [00:07:00] wheel approach, but that this is a little bit different. That was four broad life categories. This is eight presence specific categories that mapped directly to your leadership.
E. I'm gonna walk you through those eight areas that I have come up with, and each one for you. I want you to take the time to really rate yourself from one to 10, so one being this area is completely neglected or misaligned, and 10 being this is exactly where it needs to be. And, you're really comfortable with it.
So here is the key. 'cause I know what can happen when we do these types of tests is we kind of land ourselves in the middle. So I'm gonna tell you now, if you're below a seven in any area, that's potentially a 2026 focus area. Okay? Let's get started and go through them. number one, career. Does your brand and your leadership identity actively support your [00:08:00] goals?
So when people see you, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's email signature, whether it's the way you're showing up in meetings, does it match the level or you are at, or where you are potentially aspiring to? So rate yourself from one to 10. Okay. Number two, growth. Personal growth. Are you evolving with your role?
Are you still showing up the way you did three years ago? Same style, same energy, same positioning. Even though your responsibilities have completely changed, or you can see that there's a potential for, promotion, bigger, bigger wins, et cetera. So rate yourself from one to 10. Visibility.
Are you showing up in the right rooms and on the right areas? Not just physically present, but are you visible in the spaces that matter for your next level? Are you being invited to strategy, conversations, board discussions, industry [00:09:00] panels, whatever that is to you that is important for visibility, right?
Because it might be different, especially if you're a business owner versus an employee. And then rate yourself one to 10 on that, and then alignment. Okay. Does your external presence match your internal identity? So this is the gap that I really work on with clients, You've done some inner work.
You know who you are, you know what your leadership identity is, but your wardrobe, your brand, your style feels like it's, there's a disconnect and maybe hasn't caught up. So rate yourself where you are at between one to 10. Then presence. How are you being experienced in those high stake moments? The moments that matter.
Think about the last time you walked into stage pitch meeting, things that were important to you. Do you feel like you belonged there? Did you lead that room or did you [00:10:00] shrink? So rate yourself one to 10. Everyone's favorite confidence. Does your style give you energy or does it drain you? Are you reaching for those outfits that make you feel comfortable and powerful?
Or are you standing in front of your wardrobe thinking nothing works? So rate yourself from one to 10 again, credibility. Are you being positioned as the expert that you are or are you being mistaken for someone? Junior? Are your vendors taking you seriously? Are your peers treating you like decision maker?
Rate yourself one to 10. Longevity. Do you have a system for evolving your brand and style as you go, or are you still operating on autopilot? Wearing the same outfits, [00:11:00] maybe that, feel like there's a disconnect using the same outdated brand materials, hoping it all still works. So rate yourself from one to 10.
Okay? Hopefully you've either paused me or you are thinking through those in your mind, or you're gonna come back to it a bit later. Now, here's what I want you to do with this. I want you to look at the scores and where you are below a seven. That is your 2026 focus areas. Not all. Eight. So if I get a message, say it's all of them, what we're going to do is pick two to three maximum because this is the thing that people get wrong about goal setting.
You try to fix everything at once, right? Or it's so overwhelming that you burn out by February. you know exactly what I mean. That gym session, that diet, that by the time we saw turn around and come to March. You've gone off the rails. [00:12:00] I recently hit, 50 consecutive sessions for Pilates reformer Now.
Has it taken me a little while to get there? Yes. But have I been able to get to a point where I actually just picked a goal of, I'm gonna go once a week, now I'm gonna go twice a week, now I'm gonna go three times a week. There was no way I was gonna be able to maintain three times a week cold Turkey like that.
So that's what I'm talking about. I don't want you to burn out by Feb, February. So you don't need to overhaul everything. You need strategic refinement in the areas that really matter the most. So pick your two lowest scores, two to three lowest scores, and I want you to write them down. Those are your focus areas for 2026.
Okay. And if you're sitting here thinking, Sonya, I am below a seven in five, so not all of them, but [00:13:00] five. I want you to look at it and say, what are the two that is gonna give me the biggest bang for buck, the most leverage the two that if you elevated them, they would actually shift how you are experienced in the rooms that matter most.
Okay. The second piece, so that you're gonna work on that, the second diagnostic that I love to sit down and do, and it's something that I like to do on a regular basis, right? I think if you listen to a previous podcast episode, I said, you know, every November it comes around where I feel like there's this shift.
So this is really around that second diagnostic. It's the one that I call who you're becoming vision exercising, right? So this is where we move from assessment to action, because knowing your gaps is one thing, but if you don't have clarity on where you are going, you'll just keep drifting. So I now want [00:14:00] you to, really write down three to five words that describe what your 2026 presence, leadership presence is going to be.
I don't want aspirational, fluff words, right? I know what words you think you should be. The question for you becomes, how do you wanna be experienced when you walk into a room in 2026? let's get real here. Maybe it's strategic, it's grounded. Maybe it's authoritative, right? Maybe it's warm, it's credible, it's effortless, bold, refined, apologetic, whatever that is for you.
I want you to write it down. These are your North Star words. This is the presence you are going to be building towards. Then I want you to define one key shift that you need to align your style and brand with that vision. 'cause this is where most people get stuck. They have this vision, but they don't know what needs to change to [00:15:00] get there.
So let me make this really simple. Think about the last time you walked into a high stakes room. Did your outfit match those three to five words? Did your energy meet those three to five words? Did your positioning? If they didn't, what was the gap? Maybe your wardrobe is safe, but your vision is bold, so we've gotta do some change.
Maybe,for some, a woman in business, maybe your brand photos are really approachable, but your vision is authority. That's a shift that needs to be done. Maybe your LinkedIn bio is describing you as a doer, but your vision is strategic leader. What do you need to do to craft that shift? Write down just one.
What is the first thing you're gonna do in the next seven days? Now, next month? Not when you have time. Maybe it's audit your [00:16:00] wardrobe and donate those pieces that no longer align or sell those. Maybe it's rewriting a LinkedIn buyer to reflect the current level and invest in one elevator piece that matches that presence.
Maybe it's scheduling time to work through what all of these will be, and when you're going to do that, you're doing quarterly action plans, no doubt at work or within your business. So what is your quarterly action to plan when it comes to your brand style and leadership presence? If you don't take action in the first seven days of sitting down to do this, you are not gonna take action in January, and then come January, 2027, you're gonna be saying the same thing.
We need to build this muscle to craft change. 'cause the change isn't gonna happen without you doing something. So let's come back to that first week of December, right? You're thinking about the Christmas party, the school run, the gives the end [00:17:00] of school things, right? The kids are gonna be off productivity's gonna tank.
But your time to plan is now not when January hits and when everyone else is scrambling. You've already got your plan in place. Take one hour, just one before the holiday. Chaos starts, before the end of your rush, before you lose December to everyone else's priorities. Sit down and do this. Rate yourself honestly.
Be honest with yourself. Pick two to three of those focus areas, then do the vision exercise. Write down those three to five words and commit to that action within the next seven days. Because when January 1st comes and everyone else is starting for zero, you are already. Hitting the ground running and executing a plan you built when you had the space to think about it clearly, you actually enter 2026 with that same level of intentionality.
You give your [00:18:00] business, your team, the organization you work for, except this time you plan for you. First, now these two exercises again, are just a sample of the, some of the work that I do, as part of my 3D impact framework when I'm coaching leaders, working with women in order to elevate their brand, their style, their leadership presence.
Your brand and your style and your leadership identity aren't set and forget. They evolve with you and my method runs through everything that I teach, gives you those frameworks, whether you're doing it at your own pace, within activate my group program, or whether you are working with me privately in a bespoke container, one-on-one.
The through line is the same. I close the gap between who you're becoming, how you've experienced, and how you wanna present that to the world. So if you are in that season right now where you [00:19:00] know something needs to shift, but you haven't had that space to really think about it, let's talk before the year ends, right?
I've got a few spaces and opened up bookings for January, 2026. So you can learn more about the work we can do together. And that link is in the show notes. And if this episode gave you the nudge to actually do the planning, tap someone, share it with someone else to help you hold you accountable, because the more of us who start to plan strategically for ourselves, the more of you are gonna enter 2026 operating from that new version of you.
And I'm on a mission to make sure that more of you are. With that, I will see you all next episode.
